


Violet/Violent

by optimus_pam



Series: Splashes of Color [6]
Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Canon Divergence - Everlark without the games, Day Six: Violet, F/M, Peeta's Paint Box, Prompts in Panem, mentions of child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-07
Updated: 2014-10-07
Packaged: 2018-02-20 05:35:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2416799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/optimus_pam/pseuds/optimus_pam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day Six: Violet.<br/>Katniss Everdeen sings a battered, nearly broken Peeta Mellark to sleep. She wonders, as she sings the last verse — Here is the place where I love you — when exactly those words became the truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Violet/Violent

Katniss never noticed the bruises, the uncommonly frequent and inexplicable injuries, until after the incident with the bread.

The bruise bloomed across his pale cheek in the days that followed his life-saving gift. At first it was a violent, near-violet purple that faded to dull blue to sickly green before eventually disappearing completely.

She didn't know how many untold abuses Peeta Mellark withstood before he became  _the boy with the bread,_  but Katniss could count each and every one that followed.

A sprained wrist in sixth year. A mild concussion the spring he turned 13. A suspicious oven burn their freshman year and more split lips and bruises than "roughhousing with his brothers" could ever explain.

But Peeta Mellark was charming and amusing and affable and had a way with words that made everyone believe his lies, but Katniss knew they were lies.

She saw him too clearly, watched him too closely not to know the truth. He was in her year, she saw him during physical education classes and he was on the wrestling team to boot. It was impossible that someone with his natural athletic ability could be as clumsy as he professed.

So Katniss turned to her mother's store of healing herbs and remedies. She never pinched so much that they wouldn't be able to help someone who came calling, just enough to ease aches, disinfect cuts, heal bruises.

Since they were 11 years old Katniss and Peeta had been in an unspoken truce. He didn't acknowledge the healing remedies mysteriously left at the bakery's back door and Katniss never said a word about the hearty bread and flaky rolls that appeared still warm on her doorstep some mornings.

She dutifully split the baked goods with her sister, who eyed them curiously but chewed silently.

Katniss never said a word. Not until the night Peeta arrived at her front door, battered and bloody and clutching his side in pain.

He passed out as soon as he crossed the threshold. Katniss startled at having an unconscious Peeta Mellark in her arms. She told Prim to fetch their mother as she laid him out on the kitchen table.

Peeta had just started to come to when her mother walked into the room.

Some days her mother was still a stranger, a distant ghost, but when her mother had a patient to heal she reminded Katniss of the woman she had been before her father's death.

Mrs. Everdeen's sharp gaze took in Peeta's quickly blackening eye and split lip before landing on his torso, which he still clutched protectively.

"Alright young man-"

"Peeta," Katniss interrupted. "His name is Peeta."

Her mother raised a brow but continued to appraise her patient.

"Alright Peeta," she said soothingly. "Let me take a look at you."

Mrs. Everdeen's hands gently grasped the bottom of his shirt, he nodded his approval and she lifted it over his shoulders until his entire upper body was exposed.

Katniss covered her mouth to contain her horrified shriek. Red marks and cuts covered his side, violet purple bruises already blossoming on his skin.

Her mother trailed her hands down his side, gently prodding at the muscles and bones beneath his battered flesh.

Peeta sucked in a sharp breath and her mother straightened, a knowing look on her face.

"Broken ribs, just as I thought." She rummaged through their cupboards, looking for supplies.

Mrs. Everdeen wiped the sweat and blood from his side before applying a soothing balm to the abused flesh over Peeta's ribs.

"Come here Katniss," Mrs. Everdeen called. She looked into her daughter's eyes, "I need you to help me turn him on his side and steady him while I bind his side."

Katniss gulped, but did as her mother asked. Together they carefully turned Peeta onto his uninjured side.

His eyes closed tightly shut and he bit his lip to hold back a cry of pain.

"Peeta," Katniss called softly.

Her heart stuttered in her chest when his eyes fluttered open. She never noticed how very blue they were. They were bright, shiny and unfocused, swimming in pain.

She clasped his hand tightly and called his name again, urging him to meet her gaze.

"Peeta," she hesitated. "Did she- what happened?"

"Rolling pin," he exhaled through clenched teeth.

_His mother._

She didn't know she was crying until Peeta swiped a tear from her cheek.

"But, why?"

"She- she told my father to stop trading with you. Called you Seam trash." He let out a ragged breath. "I couldn't let her say that. I couldn't let her do that."

He gasped in pain and Katniss glanced sharply at her mother.

"Almost done," Mrs. Everdeen said quietly.

"You shouldn't have done that, I don't…It was foolish of you to take another beating for me," she argued, her voice a harsh whisper.

He smiled. "I guess you just have that effect on me." His chuckle turned into a pained cough.

"Here Peeta," her mother said, bringing a steaming mug of mint tea to his mouth. "Drink this."

"It's sweet," he said after a few hearty gulps.

 _Sleep syrup?_  Katniss mouthed to her mother, who nodded in reply.

Mrs. Everdeen called Katniss over to the corner of the room.

"I've done all I can for him tonight. He'll need to stay here and rest. In the morning I'll go to town and talk to his father." A hard look came over her face as her eyes landed on Peeta's injured form. "I have some things I need to say him."

Katniss volunteered to stay up with Peeta. Her mother looked at her curiously but said nothing, just nodded and headed off to join Prim in the bedroom.

Peeta was already drowsy and somewhat dazed when she returned to his side.

"Katniss?" He asked, seemingly surprised to find her by his side. He nuzzled closer to her and began to mumble, somewhat incoherently.

"Katniss Everdeen. The girl who sings so prettily the birds stop to listen." His eyes opened suddenly and his head lolled as he tried rise up. Katniss quickly shushed him and placed a halting hand on his chest, easing him back down.

"Will you sing for me Katniss?" He asked.

"What?" She sputtered. "I don't- I haven't-" she started to refuse but stopped when she saw the wounded look in his eyes.

"Alright," she huffed playfully. "What should I sing?"

"Don't know, don't care," he slurred. "Just pretty voice."

Peeta was rapidly deteriorating and Katniss sang the first song that came to mind.

_"Deep in the meadow, under the willow_  
 _A bed of grass, a soft green pillow_  
 _Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes  
_ _And when you awake, the sun will rise."_

A look of childlike wonder passed over Peeta's face before his eyes began to flutter shut.

_"Here it's safe, here it's warm_  
 _Here the daisies guard you from harm_  
 _Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true_  
 _Here is the place where I love you."_  


He was fast asleep when the song ended and she wondered, as she finished the last verse, when exactly those words had become the truth.

When had she fallen in love with Peeta Mellark?


End file.
